Russian military 'emigr'es in Mukden (1920s - 1945)

The mass emigration of the Russian White army, as a result of its defeat in the Civil war, led to the formation of several large centers of Russian military émigrés in China. Unlike Harbin and Shanghai, the main military centers of Russian emigration in China, Mukden, the capital of Manchuria until the early 1930s and the fourth of the Chinese cities in terms of the number of Russian military who lived here, is still poorly understood. This article, based on the materials of the Russian and American archives, gives a description of the life and activities of the Russian military émigrés in Mukden throughout its existence from the early 1920s to 1945. Appearance of a large Russian military colony in Mukden was primarily associated with the activities of the Chinese administration of Manchuria to strengthen its own armed. The wide involvement of Russian emigrants in military service in the army of Marshal Zhang Zuolin to the end of the 1920s attracted to Mukden former Russian military and made it an important center of political activity of anti-Soviet emigration. The almost complete withdrawal of the Russians from the Mukden army at the turn of the 1920-1930s, the Japanese occupation of Manchuria and the loss of the status of the regional capital by Mukden led to the outflow of the Russian military to other cities of China. The establishment of the control of Japanese special services over the organizations of the former military contributed to the gradual degradation of military émigrés, which significantly accelerated during the Great East Asian war.